BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan called on provincial and municipal officials of Benguet to be sober in dealing with the serious problems being encountered by vegetable truckers in the implementation of the city’s new truck ban ordinance which prohibits them from travelling on various city roads during peak hours.
The local chief executive issued the statement after receiving reports that some municipalities around the city are contemplating on enacting an ordinance that will also impose a truck ban within their areas of jurisdiction covering trucks bringing goods to the city’s businesses which could result in serious delays in the transport of goods from the lowlands to the city and the order to close the Lamtang waste transfer station being used by the city’s hauler as a staging area prior to the transport of residual waste to the Capas landfill, which is an alleged indirect retaliation to the non-exemption of vegetable truckers from the truck ban.
“The reports that we received should serve as an eye-opener to our local legislators to immediately act on numerous pending requests for exemption from the coverage of the truck ban because we initially found merit in their requests. We did our part in issuing the administrative order but we were not empowered by the ordinance to do so, thus, we forwarded the matter to the local legislative body for confirmation but some councilors have other views that is why the exemption of concerned sectors is stalled,” Domogan stressed.
He argued that ‘we cannot correct a previous mistake by committing another mistake’ and concerned city officials must rethink their hardline position against the confirmation of the administrative order or for them to formulate their own resolution temporarily suspending the effectivity of Ordinance No. 05, series of 2017, otherwise known as the new truck ban ordinance, while working out the needed amendments to the questioned local legislative measure.
He claimed provincial and municipal officials of Benguet must not take drastic actions on the issue because these can create more problems if they will proceed in passing their own truck ban ordinance as will surely derail the growth of the local economy.
He explained that he already found a loophole in the city’s new truck ban ordinance when it was implemented that is why he was constrained to issue the unconfirmed administrative order as a stopgap measure but he was misunderstood by some local legislators who branded the said order as an executive amendment to the ordinance.
Under the city’s truck ban ordinance, heavy trucks shall not be allowed to travel along major city roads from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
Domogan pointed out he is waiting for the action of the city council on how to temporarily ease the burden of truckers before making his own move so that there will be a combined executive and legislative action on the matter to prevent allegations that he is already stepping on the shoes of local legislators which he actually does not want to happen.
By Dexter A. See
